The former manager of Great Britain’s Maccabiah Team is expected to be named as a Labour peer later today.

Jonathan Kestenbaum, chief executive of the endowment fund for science and technology (NESTA), has been tipped to be included on a list of as many as 50 new working peers to be announced by Downing Street.

Jewish academic Dr Maurice Glasman and former Labour MP Oona King are also expected to be given peerages, as are Andrew Feldman, the joint chairman of the Conservative party, and the party’s treasurer Stanley Fink.

Would you let miniature robots run through your bloodstream? Could a robot take care of your grandmother? Should robot warriors with guns be let loose on the battlefields?

It might sound like science fiction, but these are new developments we might see in our lifetime, according to two academics at Monday's British Technion Society lecture, Dr Alon Wolf and Professor Alan Winfield.

A little matter like the 5,000 miles temporarily separating Rabbi Pete Tobias from his religion school pupils at The Liberal Synagogue Elstree wasn't going to stop him taking the weekly service. Despite his absence from Hertfordshire on a visit to his son in Los Angeles, it was thanks to the power of the internet, and a devotion to duty which saw him rise at 4.15 am, California time, that the minister was able to lead the 15-minute service which concludes the Sunday morning sessions.

Israeli officials are maintaining their silence over reports that the country's intelligence agencies are behind the Stuxnet computer virus that has wreaked havoc on the Iranian nuclear programme.

Analysts are convinced that the complex "worm" virus was a targeted attack that could have only been carried out by a clandestine agency of a country opposed to the Iranian efforts to acquire a bomb. Countries developing such capabilities include the United States, Britain and Israel.

Ditch the guide books. Israel's tourism ministry has launched a new gadget for the tech-savvy traveller. Visitors can download the free iPhone app which will identify your location and show you local events happening on that day.

The app has the bonus of making you fit right in when you're in Israel – you'll spend most of your day with eyes glued to the screen of your iPhone.

Glasgow's Calderwood Lodge Primary has unveiled an innovative computing project geared to making it a flagship IT school in Scotland.

"There's technology that allows you to have a shared classroom experience," explained parent council chair Tony Tankel. "If there is a superb Jewish history teacher somewhere in the world, he could teach children at Calderwood. This could be done using Skype or some more advanced technology.

Liberal Judaism's youth movement, Kadimah, had no Sefer Torah for their Shabbat service on their recent summer camp.

But no problem for visiting Rabbi Pete Tobias, who simply whipped out his mobile. "I have a Torah app," he explained, "so in what may be a first in Jewish history, I gave a Torah reading from my iPhone."